The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to secured paging.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
Wireless communications systems may support an as-needed connection between the UE and a base station. For example, a UE may initially connect to a base station upon entering a coverage area and then transition to an idle mode with no active connection until there is information to communicate. When the network (e.g., a mobility management entity (MME) of the core network) has information to communicate to the UE, a paging message is transmitted to the UE via the base station. The UE responds to the paging message by transmitting a connection request to establish an active connection to receive the information.
Conventional paging procedures, however, may not provide adequate security measures for the UE. The paging messages transmitted over the medium to the UE may include the UE's identity, e.g., an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), for routing purposes, for example. The UE receives the paging message, confirms the UE's identity is correct, and responds by transmitting the connection request message. A malicious attacker, however, may intercept the paging message transmission and decode the UE's identity, and use this information to transmit multiple paging messages to the UE. As the false paging messages include the correct UE identity, the UE may respond by transmitting multiple connection request message. This may congest the medium for the UE and base station as well as waste vital resources, e.g., deplete battery power, of the UE.